COMPETE IN MOZAMBICAN DOMESTIC MARKET

Three other airlines intend to compete with the national carrier LAM (Mozambique Airlines) on the domestic market, according to the chairperson of the Mozambican Civil Aviation Authority, Joao de Abreu, interviewed by the independent television station STV.  He gave few details, but said that two of the companies will operate fixed wing aircraft, and the third will operate helicopters. Two of the companies are in the final phase of obtaining auuthorisations. Abreu named two of the companies as Fly Africa and MAIS, Fly Africa is a budget airline based in South Africa, which claims to fly from Johannesburg to Harare, Victoria Falls and Windhoek with fares over 60 per cent lower than those charged by its competitors.The Fly Africa website gives the company’s mission as “to be always affordable. We will offer low fares every day. We will use technology to make travel hassle free, so you can travel happy”. AIM has so far obtained no information about MAIS or the third company, which Abreu did not name. He said that one of the companies will be based in Beira and a second “probably” in Nacala.

 He expected at least one of them to start flying in September”. “Aviation is not just about large planes”, said Abreu. “We are inviting businesses also to fly to the districts, and not to think solely of large aircraft”. One of the challenges, he added, is to persuade companies to explore the possibilities of flight to more remote parts of the country.  Meanwhile, the general secretary of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Raymond Benjamin, who has been attending an African Aviation Seminar in Maputo, told STV that he is opposed to the European Union’s decision to put LAM, and all other Mozambique-registered air companies, on the blacklist of airlines banned from European airspace.  The EU took this decision in 2011, and has renewed it every subsequent year. The reason given concerns failings, not in the airlines themselves, but at the IACM. “We are against the banning of airlines. This decision was taken by the EU”, said Benjamin. “But if our organization, together with the Mozambican aviation authorities, shows that Mozambique is evolving in air safety, then your country will get out of this position”.